Sean Lowe Is the New Bachelor

It’s official: Sean Lowe is starring in the upcoming season of The Bachelor, ABC tells PEOPLE exclusively.

The Dallas businessman and entrepreneur won the hearts of fans across the country as he wooed North Carolina single mom Emily Maynard on The Bachelorette last season, landing in the final three. Maynard sent Lowe, the second runner-up, home as she’d fallen head over heels for Utah entrepreneur Jef Holm, accepting his marriage proposal.

“I was standing at that rose ceremony thinking I was going to marry her,” Lowe told PEOPLE last July of the heartbreaking moment when Maynard sent him home.